Saturday, March 25, 2006

Pictures are worth a thousand...hairs that I just pulled out over them!

*This is a boring post that explains why I haven't written in a while. I will save you the trouble of reading it if you don't understand photography or computers. But if you know about computers, please read this. *

Oh here I am. After being home from my trip, that I wrote so fondly of, for over 2 weeks. I had all this neat stuff to write about and I still want to, but I got hung up on the one thing...my pictures. I must have taken 700 pictures on the trip. Did I mention that I LOVE my digital camera? But uploading, sorting, organizing, resizing, sharing and trying to get so many of the dang things on the internet is, well, time consuming at best. I have literally taken the last 3 whole days to get them all uploaded to a printer of choice, and order the ones I want. Throw in a photo shoot and an upcoming trip to my Dad's that I realized I also needed to order about 50 pictures from the last year to take to him, and putting together photos from a women's ministry event and you have a mess. It takes so dang long to upload just one photo. There is no really reliable way to do it more than one at a time, and I have probably had to upload over a thousand of them over the last 3 days. I spent the 2 weeks before that poking at the job, but not really doing anything about it. Well, between about 4 different printers, I am only going to end up with about 200 prints. Some are duplicates, some are for that photo shoot I did today, and some are for the women's ministry. I got in on some free deals by ordering them from different labs-although I paid extra to have my photo shoot from today and some nature pics done by my pro lab. No, had to be more than 200 cause that only came to $38 (+or-) and I know I've spent over $60 today on photo developing. I can't tell you how many times I have stared at an "upload failed" message and pulled my hair out over it.

So if any computer developers out there read this. Please develop a program that does quick fixes on pics like red eye correction, lightening and saturation, a good sharpener, that you can upload pics in batches from a thumbnail browser, TO THE PROCESSOR OF CHOICE. UGH! I had to use a different program for each of these tasks and each processor has a different way of uploading. I like the thumb browser at Mpix.com, the correcting tools of Picasa2, the detailed corrections of PS7 (although quick fixes are hard because the program is so involved and well, it just takes forever to load the darn program), and the fact that I can order pictures and pick them up in an hour at Wal-Mart. Wal-Marts BIGGEST drawback, is that the processing is cheap looking, even the paper is flimsy. Picasa does great quick corrections, but I have yet to figure out how to save them. You have to send those corrections to THEIR developers and while I chose Wal-Mart, I would like to have sent some to Mpix.

Okay, this is really a gripe session that no one but a photographer or a programmer will understand. Thank you for allowing me to do it. I will move on now.

Friday, March 3, 2006

STRESSED...! I always get that way when packing for a trip. That's how I am tonight. No one is complying with what I am telling them to do. The house is getting turned upside down trying to find last minute things we want to take. I can't find any of my CD's that I want to take because the kids always take them out of MY cd player to play their own and leave mine laying around to get scratched and lost. Where is that car charger for the cell phone?!?! No I want that up front in the car with me! Where is my tripod?!?! Someone just asked me where their headphones are. Oh gosh I need the socks that are still in the dryer, no the suitcase is NOT ready to go out. Put that cat back outside! UGH!

I need sleep. I need peace.

Tomorrow, I will walk out the door, leaving my house in chaos for me to come home to, for a 12 hour road trip. San Antonio. I have never been to Texas. I have always wanted to see it. I am biting my tongue to keep from screaming that I don't want to go. I hate the craziness, but this is a trip that I have wanted to make for so long. I made this trip happen. I want to put on my Sarah Groves CD and watch the prarie go past my window. I want to see a longhorn, bluebonnets, even armadillos and tarantulas. I can't wait. I don't want to just see Texas, I want to live it.

Till then, I am being told about another problem from first one and then another of my wonderful family. I must put out all the fires and find solutions to all the dilemmas. Lord, please help me survive the preparation.

Imagine what it must have been like moving kit and kaboodle across the country by wagon and having to plan for everything along the way. No CD's to listen to or DVD players in the wagon to entertain the kids, no cell phones to call loved ones that you may never see again....I have it made!